Karl Ulrich Mayer

De-Standardization of the Life Course: What it Might Mean? And if it Means Anything, Whether it Actually Took Place?

Abstract We explore both conceptually and empirically whether and how precise meanings and measures can be attached to recent ideas about the transformation of the life course. With data from the German Life History Study (GLHS), we assess social change in the transition to adulthood for birth cohorts born between 1921 and 1971, focusing on the de-standardization hypothesis. While we see increasing de-coupling of events in the connections between the school–training–work nexus and family formation, the institutional environment continues to structure the school–training–work nexus and not much change was seen in the way in which cohort members undergo these transitions. On the contrary, there is actually a homogenization as womens and mens life courses converge in terms of education and labor force participation. It is the family formation nexus that shows the most pronounced changes. This is also the realm in which gender differences persist across cohorts. While we find strong evidence for period effects that produce inter-cohort differences in life course patterns, taken as a whole our indicators do not point to a general process of a de-standardization of the life course.

Event history analysis : statistical theory and application in the social sciences

Contents: Foreword. Aim and Structure of the Book. Domains and Rationale for the Application of Event History Analysis. The Statistical Theory of Event History Analysis. Data Organization and Descriptive Methods. Semi-Parametric Regression Models: The Cox Proportional Hazards Model. Parametric Regression Models. Appendices: List of Variable Names Used in Examples. Listing of the FORTRAN Program PR3FUN Written by Trond Petersen. Listing of the FORTRAN Program for Episode Splitting Given Discrete Time-Dependent Covariates. Listing of the FORTRAN Program for Episode Splitting Given Continuous Time-Dependent Covariates. Listing of the GLIM Macros to Estimate the Weibull and Log-Logistic Models of Roger and Peacock.

Whose lives? : How history, societies and institutions define and shape life courses

This article outlines how current sociology constructs life courses. First, a set of general heuristics is provided. Second, the development of life course sociology over the last 50 years is traced as an intellectual process whereby the life course has emerged as an analytical construct in addition to such concepts as human development, biography, and aging. A differential life course sociology has gradually developed in which contexts are specified according to time and place. Third, these differential constraints operating on life courses are illustrated from the perspective of 2 research areas. One perspective introduces historical periods as a sequence of regimes that regulate life courses. Another perspective looks at cross-national differences and especially focuses on institutions as the mechanisms by which life courses are shaped. The article concludes with reflections about the relation between the variable social contexts of life courses and human development.

Die Diagnosefähigkeit der Soziologie

Politische Ordnung - Soziale Ungleichheit - Wertewandel und Integration - Soziale Bewegungen - Informationsgesellschaft.

The Berlin Aging Study (BASE): Overview and Design

This article, the introduction to a collection of six related articles, describes the general rationale and design of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE). The distinguishing features of BASE are: (1) a special focus on the very old (70–105 years), (2) broad inter-diciplinarity (medicine, psychiatry, psychology, sociology and economics), and (3) sample heterogeneity achieved by local (West Berlin) representativeness. In addition to discipline-specific topics, four theoretical orientations guide the study: (1) differential ageing, (2) continuity versus discontinuity of ageing, (3) range and limits of plasticity and reserve capacity, and (4) ageing as an inter-disciplinary and systemic phenomenon. To provide a foundation and framework for the remaining articles, this paper outlines the protocols, designs, and measurement procedures of fourteen data collection sessions. In addition, information is given on the samples used for empirical analysis. Two samples from the first wave of the Berlin Aging Study are addressed in this collection of articles. The first (N = 360), uses data from the BASE Intake Assessment Protocol (Session 1). The second (N = 156), employs data from the entire 14-session full protocol of BASE. Selectivity analyses involving 22 comparison variables are reported in this paper and demonstrate that, with the exception of 12-month mortality, these two samples displayed the intended sample heterogeneity. Those results suggest that data from BASE hold high generalizability.

The Sociology of the Life Course and Life Span Psychology: Integrated Paradigm or Complementing Pathways?

The psychology of the life span and the sociology of the life course share the same object of scientific inquiry - the lives of women and men from birth to death. Both are part of an interdisciplinary field focused on individual development and life course patterns which also includes social demography and human capital economics. However, a closer look shows that life span psychology and life course sociology now to stand further apart than in the seventies. In this paper we reassess how this divergence can be understood in terms of necessary and legitimate strengths of both approaches, as well as avoidable weaknesses which could be overcome in the future by more re-combination and integration.

The Sociology of the Life Course and Lifespan Psychology: Diverging or Converging Pathways?

Lifespan psychology and life-course sociology concern themselves to a considerable extent with separate areas of interest and separate lines of research. Life-course sociology aims to understand the evolution of life courses primarily as the outcome of institutional regulation and social structural forces. Lifespan psychology views development across the life span primarily as changes of genetically and organically based functional capacities and as behavioral adaptation. In life-course sociology and lifespan psychology, however, there is also a considerable overlapping of interests and a need for synthesis and integration.

Promises fulfilled? A review of 20 years of life course research

Empirical life course research is based on prospective or retrospective longitudinal micro data and nationally representative samples of birth cohorts or larger populations. This field of research has developed since the 1970s as one of the major social science instruments of studying the dynamics of both individual lives and societies. The paper reviews critically the contributions of life course studies by comparing the initial expectations with practices and results during the last twenty years.

Transitions to Post-Communism in East Germany: Worklife Mobility of Women and Men between 1989 and 1993

This article deals with one major aspect of the transformation of former socialist societies: the reallocation of persons in the occupational and class structure via individual mobility processes. In East Germany, this transformation occurred within the unique context of the legal, political and economic incorporation of the former German Democratic Republic into the Federal Republic of Germany. Theoretically, we develop hypotheses on the society of origin, the society of destination, and the transformation process itself as well as hypotheses on the determinants of success and failure in the transition process. Empirically, we rely on the East German part of the German Life History Study (GLHS), a representative study of the East German women and men born in 1929-31, 1939-41, 1951-53 and 1959-61. Our analyses focus especially on the transition process between 1989 and 1993. Among the unexpected results are the high degree of occupational stability among those able to remain in the labour market and the high rate of downward mobility combined with a low rate of unemployment among former managers and affiliates of the Communist regime.

Gesellschaftlicher Wandel, Kohortenungleichheit und Lebensverläufe

Soziologen erfassen den Wandel von Gesellschaften zumeist als Ubergange zwischen sozialen Systemen unterschiedlichen Typus, und zwar entweder nach der Art der vorherrschenden Wirtschaftsordnung, der politischen Ordnung oder des kulturellen Wertesystems. In diesem Sinne sprechen wir von den Ubergangen von einer agrarischen zu einer industriellen und — vager — zu einer post-industriellen Gesellschaft, von autoritaren oder totalitaren Systernen zu demokratisch verfasten Gemeinwesen, von traditionalen zu modernen oder gar postmodernen Gesellschaften. Theorien des sozialen Wandels (Zapf (Hg.) 1969) sehen denn auch in den globalen Verwerfungen und Widerspruchen zwischen Wirtschaftsordnung, politischer Ordnung und kultureller Ordnung einen wesentlichen Motor gesellschaftlicher Entwicklung. Die Marxsche Theorie uber die Dynamik von Produktivkraften und Produktionsverhaltnissen, materieller Basis und ideellem Uberbau ist dafur das prominenteste Beispiel.